Poll: Team Recognition

[tribotec_ca88]

Well Team 1382 (ETEP Technology High School, São José dos Campos, BrAzIL!!!) has actually received a whooole lot of attention! We are literally the *Elite* students at our school, I suppose (with the exception of me, of course, i'm no genius), all the kids worship us (although some spit behind our backs) and everything we touch turns to gold...anything involving robotics, anyway! (LoL) Just kidding!!!
But we do get a lot of attention, and it's great. Teachers & staff are so supportive and most students are too. I'm proud of the impact we've had on our school, it's really made people look at us and treat us differently...We've been on national media (Rede Globo, which is like ABC/NBC in the States). That's been pretty helpful...Johnson & our school have contributed financially to the project, and being on tv/newspapers/magazines & all makes money look like it grows on trees!!!
I guess it's because we dont have any sports teams at all at our school, and we dont take "normal classes" (we learn electronics, mechanics, computer science, telecommunications, etc) so our school values FIRST so much more than any other regular high school would...
But I feel soooo bad for American schools that dont receive any credit for their efforts...nearly every team works just as hard as the next and its sad to know that in some cases their not being recognized for it!!! But just wait! I agree that FIRST will take over the world someday! WhooHoo!

[Steve P]

Originally Posted by FadyS.

Well, yea, 288 people if we get all 4 buses full. Not everybody has handed in their permission forms yet.

Thats tremendous wether or not you get the full 288. I'd doubt that 288 of the 1000+ students at my school even KNEW we had a robotics club.

[Jay H 237]

We did get a photo in the yearbook this year, I'm unsure of other years. At best it would be half a page. Since we were one of the winners of the 2004 New Jersey regional (see my sig) the school board also gave out cirtificates to the students on our team. Our banners from all the comps we won were hanging in the gym but only one is left now from 2002. All the others were "stolen".

[Ashley Weed]

At my alma mater which as one of many active schools on the team, we were never truely thought of as a school club or organization. In the beginning students nor factulty knew the team existed. However, as time passed while I was in high school we tried to spread the word. Members of the team had close friends on the newspaper staff and we tried to at least be known. We had (two that I recall) "walk-throughs" which athletes get when they qualify for states; one which was when the team left for Nationals 2002, and one was when we won Ramp Riot 2002.
On a side note: the thing that bothered me the most was when we started to bring in awards. We had a great idea, that for one week school A would display them, and then they would travel to school B, and so on. This worked out perfectly right till the end of the year. However, my school would not display them in one of their numerous cases, and would not be responsiable for them being on display in the office.

[RoteAugen]

until now, my team has had next to no recognition whatsoever save for that of other robotics teams and our sponsors.... and the occasional boston comedian we bribe to come to our town for a fundraiser

[BerserkerSpyke]

We have a fair-weather school... they give us barely any money but when we won chairmans and our mentor won woodie flowers:
1. We got a seperate announcement during First period
2. We all got notes of congratulations personally signed by the principle
3. They are displaying OUR trophies in the main office
I really hope they keep the good attitude about the team... maybe they will think about giving us more money next year...

[Nate Edwards]

We have the letter system but only because I made up the requirments and we pay for all the badges etc... We are in the yearbook cause one of our members is the editor, We have been in the school newspaper because one of our advisors is the head advisor for the newspaper. We were presently suprised when our principal came for a half an hour to watch our regional, but we dont get money from the school and about the least amount from the booster club.. But hey they let us work on campus so its all good
Nate

[darkcreature]

We always talk about how much our school does for us.....or how little =). They wouldn't even put good luck at nationals our rookie on their little announcement board until someone raised h**l at a school board meeting about it. They are overly strict on the team with permission slips, $, disciplinary things and such and they give us no place to put last years runner up trophy (it's sitting in one of our teacher advisors classrooms) and I wouldn't be surprised that tomorrow at school we won't get a good spot on the morning annoucments (over the PA) and we won't get somewhere to put our FIRST PLACE TROPHY.....i hate school

[DarkJedi613]

From the school's point of view they love the program, or at least the superintendent does , a lot of the teachers are interested and we have four advisors. They give us transportation wherever they can (airports, SBPLI Regional, etc.). Only time they weren't behind us was last year at Nationals when our school wasn't allowed to have field trips "going over bridges" (We live on a big island you know so you need to use a bridge, ferry or plane to get off). And they wouldn't allow the advisors to go - but we taped everything for them...including the roller coasters

Unfortunitly a lot of the students (or at least students higher in the hierarchy) don't like us because we get like 4 x as much money as the other clubs. But hey none of the other clubs need to buy yards of metal or lexan. Well yeah, but they complain to the student council about it.

Compared to other respones, I think we get a pretty good response from our school.

We get $1000 from our Associated Student Body (which on shirts is spelled Assciated student body )

We also get to be part of the spring sports assembly and show off our robots. This year we got 4 minutes to drive the robots and finished with a hang off of the basketball hoop supports. The crowd went wild!

We get 1 page in the yearbook, and we're in newsletters/newspapers.

Almost all of the students at our school know about the Robotics Team, but that's partly due to the fact that our advisor is one of the most, if not the most, popular teacher at the school. He was even "Educator of the Year."

[Redhead Jokes]

Originally Posted by SilverStar

We get $1000 from our Associated Student Body (which on shirts is spelled Assciated student body )
We also get to be part of the spring sports assembly and show off our robots. This year we got 4 minutes to drive the robots and finished with a hang off of the basketball hoop supports. The crowd went wild!
We get 1 page in the yearbook, and we're in newsletters/newspapers.
Almost all of the students at our school know about the Robotics Team, but that's partly due to the fact that our advisor is one of the most, if not the most, popular teacher at the school.

We don't get money from either of our schools. MCHS did donate space for our first South Bay Lego League Tournament that turned into the largest So Cal Lego League Tournament. RUHS donates all our workingspace.

We woo'd an english teacher to go with us to Phoenix regional. He was SOOOO pumped up he talked endlessly about it at teacher meeting and his english classes. It gained us 3 new members, he's now willing to do the school paperwork for field trips that weren't being done. He's going to try to get us into the pep rally to hang from the bar *envy that you got to do that*. We've now managed to convince his best friend, and an awesome popular education advisor, to attend nationals with us.

We hadn't been in yearbook except a blurp when we won 2001 national championship. Last year tho a team member was on the yearbook team and got us 2 pages. This year we pursued the yearbook pages at both schools. Our graphics guy created the pages to make things easy for them - doesn't mean they used his page per se, but the pics and words were there for them to use.

This year our superintendent, asst superintendent, and principal attended So Cal Regional, and took a tour of the pits. Thank you to So Cal teams who inspired them from the pits - especially the chairman's award winner from New Jersey.

This year MCHS superintendent attended the So Cal regional. They all met a parent from our team who is in with Boeing, who is working with our retired school district technology director (now on the board of the foundation who handles our money). These power houses have scheduled a meeting now to get a robotics curriculum in our school hopefully by next year, funding for teachers working with robotics' teams, and working towards regional funding!!! The principal is talking about getting a CAD teacher to teach not a machine shop curriculum but a robotics' curriculum (important distinction!!!).

Having heard from Hawthorne team about their robotics' curriculum, we've been inspired and hopefully will be gaining from their expertise about running all of that.

In addition, Hawthorne is sponsored by Disney Imagineering. *short story* Disney Imagineering was so "taken" by the FIRST program, they scouted teams who could benefit from their unique sponsorship. Hawthorne's robots have won their 3rd quality award at So Cal yesterday. Their quality is what attracted Disney Imagineering, who has since helped mentor their classes into awesome classes and opportunities for their students.

So - ta da - thanks to Hawthorne, if I understand it right, Disney Imagineering has now agreed to be a sponsor at So Cal regional for next year.

So our "minimum" regional (no frills) will be much more than minimum next year.

[Chris Fultz]

Try to show your schools the benefits of the program fom an education standpoint - and also find one person who really believes and understands what you are doing - one voice can go a long way - that might be a teacher, a principal, a school board member, a respected business leader, who knows.

And, for your next education steps - there are many, many colleges who know and value the FIRST program. Just look at the scholarships list - those are reserved for FIRST students - encourange your teammates to apply and take advantage of the great opportunities at those schools. Many other schools do not have unique FIRST scholarships but the FIRST experience can give you an edge on their general scholarships.

And lastly, I am part of the Engineering Education Committee at Rolls-Royce, and part of the College Recruiting Team. Rolls-Royce supports FIRST teams form the Engineering Education budget because we believe it is truly education and a great value to us as a company. FIRST participation can be a big "plus" for a job applicant, and FIRST veterans are eligible to start our college Co-Op program a year ahead of other students.

The companies that sponsor FIRST and FIRST teams know the value of the program and that is why they invest. They are investing in YOU because someday you will be in the job market and thru FIRST you will be a better person and a better engineer or scientist or whatever else you choose to be.


Keep a big picture view, and know that even if your school doesn't get it, there are many, many, many colleges and employers that do.

[Joe Troy]

The Upper Darby High School Robotics Team, 357, gets great support from the Upper Darby School District. The Superintendent and the School Board encourage and support the development of our team. We get coverage from the school newspaper and the High School's TV new program. We have always been part of the yearbook. This year we have two pages in the yearbook highlighting our activities in and out of school. The Superintendent has approved changes to the High School curriculum to create a new computer programming course that centers around FIRST Robotics. We have excellent access to the High School after school and on weekends.

We are very fortunate to have this kind of support.